17: Chapter 8: Sports Student 17: Chapter 8: Sports Student “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” Lin Yi’s reaction made Wei Liang feel as though facing a great enemy, he quickly stretched his neck to ask, “What happened?”
Lin Yi pointed at the symbols for the Teaching Building and the school gate on the map and mimed the route between them before saying, “Liangzi, look…”
“On the way from the school gate to here, there are streetlights on both sides, and judging by the distance between them, the whole journey should not be long…”
“But do you remember how long it took us to reach the Teaching Building?”
Wei Liang was stunned for a moment, then put on a deep thinking face, making calculation gestures with his hands, and stammered, “Ah this…
Oh no, it was almost two hours, right?”
“It was one hour and forty-five minutes.” Lin Yi held his forehead in resignation and corrected, “But according to the map’s scale, this whole journey should take at most fifteen minutes on foot.”
Wei Liang said, “But don’t forget Old Lin, the mist was thick when we came, and we followed the Security Guard for a while.”
He offered his opinion, “Could it be that we took a roundabout route?”
“Taking a roundabout route is unlikely.” Lin Yi denied, “The Security Guard had a metal chain bound to him, and the chef pulled that chain taut.
If we had taken a roundabout, the chain couldn’t possibly have looked like that.”
Oh, you’re right.” Wei Liang closed his mouth, pondering.
Lin Yi said, “Also, have you noticed, the numbering on the streetlights in the map is actually chaotic; I’ve looked over it many times and can’t make any sense of the pattern at all.”
Wei Liang grabbed the map and observed it earnestly, only to see a bunch of lampposts scattered on the not-so-long route between the school gate and the Teaching Building.
The distribution of these lampposts had no pattern to it, as if the person planning the lights had thrown a handful of rice grains down and planted a lamppost wherever they landed.
“With so many lampposts close together, it’s impossible to see only one at a time, right?”
Wei Liang hesitated, “Could it be…
we hit a ghost wall?”
Wei Liang continued, “If we can’t explain it with science, then isn’t our only option to break it with metaphysics?”
Upon hearing this, Lin Yi looked very serious at Wei Liang, speaking earnestly and sincerely, “In that case, I wonder if Fortune Life Wei Liang the Celestial has any supernatural powers?”
Wei Liang’s face instantly turned awkward, “Old Lin, aren’t you taking a dig at me!
Old Lin, what are you doing now?”
Lin Yi may have been joking, but he didn’t dwell on that point, as he was busy arranging the numbers on the map from high to low with a pen.
Soon a pattern resembling a tangled skein of yarn appeared on the map.
Lin Yi frowned at the pattern, unable to figure it out.
At that moment, a classmate walked over to Lin Yi and Wei Liang and flipped open a chair to sit down.
He seemed to have come over deliberately and, after glancing at Lin Yi’s handiwork, couldn’t help but say, “I advise you not to dig too deep into the secrets of this campus.
Just obey the rules and leave after seven days.”
“If you’re really bored, there are comics on the bookshelf behind you, both serious and less so; just flip through them to pass the time.”
This voice interrupted Lin Yi’s train of thought.
He turned his head to look and saw a male classmate in a blue and white striped tracksuit, looking at them with a half-smile.
This classmate had a buzz cut, a lollipop in his mouth, with a lithe and muscular outline visible under the tracksuit, and a Hong Kong-style comic book in his hand.
“All the experiential classes on the timetable, except for the physical education class, just require going through the motions in the classroom, so…
just check out the comics.”
Lin Yi asked curiously, “Classmate, may I ask who you are?”
The lollipop stick slid from the left corner of his mouth to the right.
“I’m Xu Shunkang, the Sports Student.” He extended his hand, “Pleased to meet you guys, the newcomers.”
Lin Yi was slightly taken aback.
Wei Liang excitedly shook Xu Shunkang’s hand, vigorously moving it up and down, “Sports Student Big Brother!
I’m Wei Liang, and he’s Lin Yi.
uh I mean, we’re students from other schools, here to experience university life together.”
Xu Shunkang waved his hand, “Where you come from doesn’t matter; the important thing is, did you hear what I just said?”
“Of course, of course, we’ll definitely listen to the big brother!” Wei Liang nodded and bowed, responding with a beaming smile.
Seeing Lin Yi still frowning and standing still, Wei Liang couldn’t help but elbow him.
Lin Yi snapped back to reality, met Xu Shunkang’s gaze, and nodded, “I heard it.”
Xu Shunkang, understanding that Lin Yi probably hadn’t taken his words to heart, could only open his mouth and then shake his head and sigh, “Well, I wish you luck then.”
After saying this, he looked around, his eyes sweeping over the other classmates who had been surrounding Lin Yi, before settling on the comic book in his hand.
While flipping through it, he muttered, “Stupid author, always drawing these nauseating ntr plots that even dogs would find sickening!”
Lin Yi glanced at the cover of the comic book, which seemed to be titled “Mountain and Sea Green Battle”…
“Do you want to have a look too?
Should I get some from over there?” Wei Liang whispered conspiratorially.
Lin Yi rolled his eyes, “I’m still concerned about the school rules…”
“As long as you don’t dwell on the weird stuff in this campus anymore, that’s fine.” Wei Liang breathed a sigh of relief.
“Old Lin, let me tell you, when you’re in this campus, the physical education teachers and Sports Students’ advice can sometimes be hard to hear, but harsh truths are often unpleasant to the ear.
Still, you ought to listen.”